Trick or Treat
by The Mome Raths Outgrabe
Summary: An unexpected guest shows up to Tony's on Halloween. Not related to my Holiday Series.


**A/N: Doesn't really take any movies after Avengers into account. Made for WA's Halloween Writing Challenge.**

* * *

Tony opened the door expecting a party guest for his big party on Halloween instead all he saw was Loki dressed as the Joker from Batman complete with the scars, purple suit and the whole shebang. He was holding a pillow case in front of him and smiling as he yelled.

"Trick or Treat." Tony didn't know how to respond to this. Loki was a wanted criminal on his doorstep, dressed as the Joker, trick or treating. There was just too much information going in and he couldn't seem to organize any of it into anything that made any semblance of sense.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Is what came out when he was able to speak again.

"I heard of this wonderful holiday and thought I might try it." His smile was even eerier with the Joker's longer looking mouth.

"No, this is, no. You can't just come here after attacking New York and just trick or treat here. That's not how it works!" Tony shouted.

"Is it not?" Loki's smile didn't dim. Tony didn't know what Loki wanted from him but at this point, he really didn't care. Loki was the one who had stupidly walked into their place and hell if he wasn't going to take advantage of this. However, his shouts had apparently drawn the Avengers all looking with varying amounts of alarm and bemusement looking at the person in the hallway. The talking that had been going on in the background died as tension filled the air.

Thor was the first who spoke,"Loki?"

Loki spared only a glance at The Thunderer before returning his gaze to Tony.

"There is no need for this," he spoke his grin not fading even in the face of all the Avengers. There was something off about all this. Loki had been trampled by them or rather by the Hulk and he was standing there looking at them like they were pals. Tony was glad that he was dressed as a doctor, some bet he had lost to Clint that he couldn't remember at the moment, but there were a lot more inconvenient costumes he could be dressed in like Thor's fireman costume. That one had all the girls swooning. Still, it probably wouldn't be too inconvenient for Thor to fight in it.

"Get down," he shouted at the party goers before pressing a button on his Starkwatch and soon he was encased in his own armor. The rest just worked with what they had.

"You remember how this went down last time?" Loki didn't speak but he could tell that he did.

"And you really want to do this again?"

"Oh, but there is a difference this time." he said in I-know-something-you-don't-know kind of way.

"And what's that?"

"It's Halloween." Tony expected something more than that. Some new power or some weapon of some sort. He looked briefly at his teammates and none of seemed to get what Loki was talking about...wait, Thor was looking puzzled, but like he was trying to think. Oh, no he hated that expression on his friend's face when it came to his crazy brother. It never boded well.

Loki seemed to also notice Thor's expression as he focused on him as well seeming to be waiting for Thor to understand. Fortunately, it didn't take long. His eyes meet with his brother's and they both shared a long stare, Thor's eyes wide with horror and Loki's alight with malicious mirth.

"So you remember now?" Tony kept looking between the two hoping one of them would let him on the secret because the suspense was driving him crazy.

"Is it the same?"

"There's more days on Asgard but similar enough."

"What the hell is going on?" Tony yelled when he got tired of the two Asgardians talking around him, leaving him with no idea what the hell was going on. Loki diverted his attention from Thor to look at him though he still looked happy as a clown, well a psychotic clown. Man, his costume really fit.

"I'll leave you to fill them in," Loki said briefly glancing back at his brother before returning his gaze to Tony.

"Remember, I did offer you a choice."

Well, that sounded ominous. But before he could ask or really even of what the hell Loki meant by that the room was swallowed in a bright green light. His eyes instinctively clamped shut to block it out by he could still feel something bright on them for a moment before it faded away.

When he opened his eyes the first thing he saw was trees. He twirled around and found more trees but not pine trees or aspens or any of the normal trees he was used to seeing but trees that well more viney and well close together than the average forest. Not that he had a lot of experience with the great outdoors, to begin with. He was mostly a strictly indoors guy he needed access to power for most of the things that got him excited.

Another thing he noticed was the heat despite the lack of sun. Well, there were faint wisps of pink clouds peeking through the green. So the sun was setting, but still, the sun had been down for a good couple of hours. It was pretty obvious from the still obviously awake animals chirping and what not filling the areas around him that they weren't in Kansas anymore. In fact, he wasn't sure where the hell he was other than a jungle probably somewhere in Central or South America. That was rather far from home.

As sweat starting collecting on his face and other areas he blinked, glanced down and saw that his suit was gone. Everything other than his Starkwatch and doctor costume was gone. The costume was starting to get obvious sweat stains decorating certain key parts of himself.

Not good.

Not good at all.

Despite the part of him that was telling him to hide, he started exploring the area looking for really anything that would him a clue with how to handle the situation he had found himself in.

After about 20 minutes into his fruitless search, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He turned his whole head toward and saw Thor looked around wildly at the jungle as the Asgardian was walking away from him. Thor must have seen him though cause he changed direction and starting coming directly towards Tony stopping a few feet away. Though his eyes still searched the forest even after his feet stopped moving.

"Thor, buddy?" he said trying to remain calm even though he was everything but. If he started yelling now though he wasn't sure when he was going to stop. Thor's eyes finally focused on him after a moment.

"Why are we here? Cause as far as I know, he can't do this. He doesn't have the juice to do this and yet he did it anyway. He sent us off god knows where and you never said he could do that!" He didn't realize that his forced pleasant voice he had started with had gotten more pissed off as he had gone into he had finished with a shout. Thor didn't answer he just continued looking at him. Tony raised his eyebrow impatiently encouraging him to continue to say something.

"Uh... there is a festival on Asgard near about the same time as Halloween there." He raised his eyebrows and leaned his head slightly wondering what that had to do with anything.

"And," he added when Thor again decided not to continue. Thor choose not to look at him instead he resumed looking at the jungle trees but after a moment he did answer, though slowly as if he was trying to pick his words carefully.

"This festival took place after the harvest when the planet within the right alignment but it was also at a time when the veil between this life and night is at its thinness...It is also when those who use magic are at their strongest. They can perform feats during this time that they haven't learned or don't currently have the power for as long as the night last. It has been oft one of my most treasured holidays." The Thunder's eyes conflicted. Something like sadness, and possibly nostalgia along with maybe anger were in there. Tony wasn't really sure but also didn't care that much as soon as he processed what Thor had said. Loki due to the planet or something or it's alignment or some crap like that could for several hours do crap that he normally couldn't do.

"So the little bastard teleported all of us to the armpits of Central or Southern America?" Tony spat out only to get a sharp look from Thor. Right, Thor didn't like it when he called his brother a bastard. Tony almost didn't care, but Thor was the only Avenger he found so far so he guessed he would try not to anger him. At least for the moment besides the bastard had left him his Starkwatch which meant all he needed was call Jarvis and then all of them could just go home, well when they found each other of course.

Whatever this was, it just a temporary problem. Almost like a vacation. Pepper kept saying he needed to take a vacation and maybe she would finally get her wish. A couple of hours in this forest and then he could go home. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad... you know other than the sweltering heat and the bugs that were as big as his fist. He shivered slightly as he caught sight of one and stopped himself from yelping and running away from it. Okay, he should definitely call Jarvis, no need to prolong this particular 'vacation'. He fiddled with the watch for a few seconds, then fiddled again when the screen read something he definitely didn't want to see, not here. After trying again and again he finally read the word it kept saying aloud, " No signal." There were very few places in the world where his tech didn't have a signal. Apparently, Loki had found one of them and had trapped them there.

" _Remember I did offer you a choice."_ Tony winced as he remembered technically he had.

"Dammit."


End file.
